Pasadena Protestors Picket ICE Raids at City's AC Hotel

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Pasadena Protestors Picket ICE Raids at City's AC Hotel originally appeared on L.A. Mag.
At about 6:30 p.m. Sunday evening, a throng of some 50 protestors ran through the first floor of the parking lot adjacent to AC Hotel Pasadena on the corner of Madison Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, brandishing signs with slogans such as 'ICE out of Dena' and 'L.A. Loves Immigrants' while trailing two marked Federal police vehicles exiting the lot. 'Fuera ICE!' hollered the protestors, some waving Mexican flags and shouting through bullhorns. 'Fuera ICE!' The impassioned cri de coeur (Spanish for 'Out with ICE') reverberated throughout Pasadena's Playhouse District after news of ICE's arrival hit the Internet earlier in the day. An AC Hotel employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that several Federal police vehicles rolled up to the property at approximately 8 a.m. Some ICE agents, he said, had booked rooms for the night. Others had booked hotel rooms the night before. Some agents, he said, had left, but the tires on their cars had been slashed (which is why they remained parked on the lot's seventh level hours after checking out of AC Hotel.) By around 10:30 a.m., a crowd of several dozen anti-ICE protestors had formed on Madison, along the backside of Urth Caffe. There, demonstrators issued an hour-long round of the rallying cry, 'ICE out of Dena! ICE out of Dena!' Volunteers handed out bottles of cold ice water, and a few musicians played acoustic guitar. One protestor paced calmly back and forth holding a thurible of smoking incense. A toddler slumped against a wall, slurping apple juice while his mother raised a sign up and down reading 'ICE out of L.A.' Less than 50 feet away, patrons at Urth sat at tables drinking coffee and eating omelets and croissants.
As news of Trump deploying the National Guard circulated the airwaves and violence erupted at the anti-ICE demonstrations in Downtown L.A., the Pasadena protest remained ardent and emotional, but controlled and calm. 'We got alerts that ICE was staying in some of the hotels here in Pasadena,' said Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Job Center. 'Organizers and community members went around to verify, and we identified that in the AC Hotel, the Westin and in Hotel Dena, there were immigration agents. In the AC hotel, we got word from a staff member that the agents were staying here and questioning the workers–the workers that were cleaning their rooms, the workers that were making their food. They were questioning them and asking for their ID and in a very aggressive way. So that's why our community organizers came here to say we don't want ICE here. We brought elected officials and urged them to not let any ICE agents here.' 'The right to peacefully assemble and express ourselves is a fundamental part of who we are—not just as Pasadenans, but as Americans,' said Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who arrived at the scene late morning. 'Our City remains firmly committed to ensuring that every resident—regardless of immigration status—is treated with dignity and respect. We will continue working to make sure all our neighbors feel safe, supported, and cared for, especially during times of uncertainty.'By around noon, the protest had swelled in size; at its highest point, there were around 200 individuals gathered around the hotel's surrounding sidewalks. But it never grew more fiery than fervent calls for the community to band together against federal immigration raids and the threat of deportation.
'I've talked to veterans who fought in the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars, and they are telling me, we've never had that kind of fear,' Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told the crowd. 'So thank you for coming out, because this struggle might be long and it's going to be painful, too. We all know it's going to be painful. It's been painful already for so many families, for so many parents that have been taken away, people that we know, people that we love–our neighbors.' On the heels of January's catastrophic Eaton Fire, from which Pasadena and Altadena are still reeling, the ICE raids come at an especially precarious and vulnerable moment. Community members have lost their homes and livelihoods. Now, many face deportation. 'The churches of Pasadena stand with the migrant community,' Andrew Mark, pastor for communities and family at Pasadena Covenant Church, told demonstrators. 'We've been here,' he continued. 'We'll continue to be here. We will pray because we do pray, but we will also picket, because we believe in action. And prayer. And those two things go together. We will be here every day, protesting, singing songs and declaring that it's time for ICE to leave.'
Pasadena Councilmember Rick Cole, who served as the city's mayor from 1992-94, began his rousing speech by informing demonstrators that his daughters had been arrested at the downtown L.A. protest. 'I've just seen pictures of my two daughters on a curb in downtown Los Angeles in handcuffs,' said Cole. 'So I'm going to be figuring out where they are so I can go bail them out.' 'This [ICE raid] is personal for me and for my family,' Cole continued. 'It's also personal for the Mayor [Gordo]. When he was growing up, he had a coffee can on the kitchen table with money– in case his dad did not come home from work. So, this is personal for Pasadena, because these are our neighbors. This is our family. These are the workers. These are Pasadenans. And we're going to protect them.' Cole urged the Pasadena community to stand together, never give up and to stay strong. 'There are three things to keep in mind,' said Cole. 'Number one, organize. Number two, organize. Number three, organize. Hundreds of you came out spontaneously today, because you saw this on social media, because your friends texted you. We need to mobilize in the thousands, because [ICE] is coming back. And when they come back–because they are coming back–we are going to be here.'
This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.